Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the publication of NHS England’s Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View said: 

“NHS England’s Five Year Forward View update contains welcome ambitions around mental health and cancer care that Labour endorses. However reading between the lines this plan confirms that Theresa May’s Government has broken its promise by failing to give the NHS the funding it needs. The plan admits the public are ‘concerned’ for the future of the NHS and that the health service is under ‘real pressure’ to cope with rising demand within the current spending envelope.

“Labour has warned repeatedly that the NHS funding squeeze imposed by the Government is damaging standards of patient care. Now the Forward View confirms that the main 4 hour A&E target won’t be met for at least the next year. Waiting lists are growing as a direct result of the financial crisis. The collapse in standards in the past year has been nothing short of astonishing.

“What’s more the plan confirms more and more rationing of treatments is taking place across the NHS.

“One of the biggest problems laid out by the new NHS plan is the massive workforce challenge for the health service. We welcome NHS England reinforcing Labour’s calls for the Government to guarantee the status of European health staff as soon as possible. Sadly Jeremy Hunt has no plan whatsoever to help the NHS through the challenge of Brexit and is being enormously complacent about the impact for the NHS. The Government need to be much clearer about how they will guarantee there are enough staff in place in the health service to keep patients safe for the years to come.”